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Incredible images emerged of a hulking freighter wearing mangled pieces of a steel bridge on its bow after a collision in southwestern Kentucky Thursday night. In the pictures, the 312-foot Delta Mariner idles, still partially in the bridge's path, and clearly looks much too large to fit beneath the aging Eggner Ferry Bridge, which crosses the Kentucky Lake Reservoir. The cargo vessel was carrying space rocket parts for the United Launch Alliance, intended for a vehicle that was scheduled to be shot into orbit from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2092796/Bridge-collapses-Kentucky-rammed-hulking-freighter-carrying-space-launch-equipment.html#ixzz1kgpuK4pc

An engineering firm that consulted on the Interstate 35W bridge in Minneapolis that collapsed three years ago has agreed to pay $52.4 million to victims. San Francisco-based URS Corp. had been sued by more than 100 people. They accused the company of missing warning signs on the bridge before its rush-hour collapse into the Mississippi River on Aug. 1, 2007. Thirteen people died and 145 were injured. URS had argued that its engineers didn't know about a design flaw in the bridge that made it vulnerable when it collapsed. "Aug. 1, 2007, marked the greatest manmade catastrophe our state has...

MINNEAPOLIS -- Explosive documents about the Interstate 35W bridge suggest the engineering company the state hired to make sure the bridge was safe actually predicted it would collapse months before it fell apart. The documents are part of a lawsuit victims are bringing against California based URS Corporation. They accuse the firm of predicting a catastrophic event, but allegedly not telling anyone about it. The thought has been tough to swallow for the victims of that day in August 2007, when 13 people lost their lives and well over 100 were injured. "I remember until probably about 5:15 that day,"...

Citizens of Shanghai are aghast at the collapse of a major new bridge, pictured, which was revealed to be constructed partially out of rubbish instead of concrete. The bridge, spanning the Wusong River in central Shanghai, was completed in 2009 and replaced a century old bridge with a more modern design. However, after only a short period in operation the bridge began to collapse, with investigators finding such sturdy construction materials as bags of rubbish, Styrofoam, scrap wood and waste plastic used in the structure in place of reinforced concrete.

New Delhi, India (CNN) -- Forty-five people are believed dead after a bridge collapsed in the north Indian industrial hub of Kota, officials said Saturday. Rescuers were struggling to retrieve all the bodies of victims who fell into the Chambal River on Thursday after the bridge collapsed, according to K. Ravikanth, the top administrative official of Kota district. So far, rescuers have pulled out 11 bodies, he said. The bridge, under construction since 2007, is a joint venture among Gammon India, South Korea's Hyundai Engineering and India's national highway authority, said Rajeev Dasot, Kota's inspector of police. Kota, about 250...

A bridge over the I-75 in Hazel Park, Michigan has collapsed following a massive explosion after a gas tanker overturned.

< snip > Two steel plates along the bottom of a truss arch on the Main Avenue Bridge had rusted so thin in September 2007 that one had a four-inch hole -- leading transportation officials to worry privately that the span was in danger of collapsing. But no one warned the public about those fears. Although the outer lanes of the six-lane span were immediately closed, Ohio Department of Transportation officials said in news releases at the time only that they were repairing the bridge's structural steel. No specifics about the extent of the problem were revealed because the media...

It's official. The Interstate 35W bridge fell -- not because of what Tim Pawlenty or Carol Molnau did or didn't do -- but because engineers failed to calculate correctly the thickness of gusset plates more than 40 years ago. The National Transportation Safety Board's findings, released on Nov. 14, must feel like some vindication to Pawlenty, Molnau and MnDOT's bridge inspection and maintenance team. After the collapse, Pawlenty counseled patience. He urged Minnesotans to wait for a thorough investigation before leaping to conclusions about why the bridge fell. Instead, critics launched a relentless -- if often subtly expressed -- search...

WASHINGTON — The Interstate 35W bridge collapsed because of forces so great a massive piece of steel was stretched as if it were latex, eventually ripping apart and causing one of the biggest transportation disasters in U.S. history. Holding the first of a two-day hearing before it releases final findings and recommendations, the National Transportation Safety Board said Thursday the collapse in Minneapolis was caused by a fatal design error. The error allowed an accumulation of weight added to the bridge over its 40-year lifespan — plus the weight associated with a new construction project — to finally topple it,...

Honking their horns and stirring up faint clouds of post-construction dust, hundreds of drivers helped open the new Interstate 35W bridge this morning just a few minutes after 5 a.m. The two processions -- one from the south end of the bridge, one from the north -- were led by representatives of agencies that were the first responders when the old bridge collapsed last year. They were followed by Minnesota Department of Transportation maintenance trucks with sturdy, wide bumpers that kept drivers in line. Vehicles coming from the south were the first to make it across the 10-lane bridge, which...

Governor Pawlenty and other officials announced Monday when the new Interstate 35W bridge in Minneapolis will open. The bridge will open to traffic on Thursday at 5 a.m., just over a year after the old one tragically collapsed into the Mississippi River and cut off a key Minneapolis artery. Pawlenty was joined on Monday at a news conference on the new bridge by Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak and members of Minnesota's congressional delegation. Officials also announced plans for a memorial to honor the victims of the August 1st, 2007, collapse of the old I-35W bridge that killed 13 people and...

One year ago today, when the Interstate 35W bridge in Minneapolis collapsed during the evening rush-hour commute and killed 13 people, the disaster sparked a furious national debate about the crumbling state of our infrastructure. So quickly are such catastrophes forgotten that a major-party presidential candidate can now propose eliminating the tax that pays for bridge repair, and few bat an eyelash. About a quarter of the public road bridges in the United States are considered functionally obsolete or structurally deficient, according to the American Assn. of State Highway and Transportation Officials. Fixing them would cost roughly $140 billion, but...

Study Finds Promises To Repair U.S. Infrastructure Have Gone Largely Unfulfilled By Alexis Christoforous, CBS 2 News NEW YORK (CBS) ― The one-year anniversary of the Minnesota bridge collapse is putting renewed focus on the safety of our nation's infrastructure. A new study finds many of the promises made then still have not been fulfilled, and lack of money is a big factor. It's been a year since the massive bridge collapse in Minnesota sent 13 drivers plunging to their deaths. The tragedy triggered nationwide bridge inspections, and promises to fix serious problems. But a review by the Associated Press...

Rotting holes in steel support beams, enormous rust patches, small splits in steel girders and broken bracing are evident all along the underside of the John Greenleaf Whittier Bridge, the heavily traveled Interstate 95 span that crosses the Merrimack River between Amesbury and Newburyport. A just-released state safety report filed in the wake of last year's disastrous collapse of the similarly designed Interstate 35 bridge in Minneapolis gave the 57-year-old Whittier Bridge "poor" ratings due to deterioration. On a 10-step ranking system, the rating is just two steps above the point where engineers consider closing a bridge due to safety...

During MSNBC's live coverage of Tuesday's Democratic primaries, co-anchor Chris Matthews poked fun at Larry Craig's bathroom arrest during an interview with Minnesota Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar as he referred to Republican plans to hold their presidential convention in St. Paul, and joked that Craig would be starting his book tour at the airport. Moments later during an interview with Clinton campaign advisor Lisa Caputo, he joked about the Minnesota bridge collapse as an embarrassment Republicans would have to face when they come to the state: "We're having a little bit of fun here tonight with the opportunity of Republican...

CLEVELAND (AP) - Republican presidential candidate John McCain on Thursday backed off his assertion that pork-barrel spending led to last year's deadly bridge collapse in Minneapolis. With Democrats criticizing him for citing wasteful spending as the cause of the disaster, McCain told reporters in Cleveland, "No, I said it would have received a higher priority, which it deserved." That statement was in contrast to McCain's remarks to reporters aboard his campaign bus as it rolled through Pennsylvania on Wednesday: "The bridge in Minneapolis didn't collapse because there wasn't enough money. The bridge in Minneapolis collapsed because so much money was...

Republican John McCain said Wednesday that the bridge collapse in Minnesota that killed 13 people last year would not have happened if Congress had not wasted so much money on pork-barrel spending. Federal investigators cite undersize steel plates as the "critical factor" in the collapse of the bridge. Heavy loads of construction materials on the bridge also contributed to the disaster that injured 145 people on Aug. 1, according to preliminary findings by the National Transportation Safety Board. "The bridge in Minneapolis didn't collapse because there wasn't enough money," McCain told reporters while campaigning in Pennsylvania. "The bridge in Minneapolis...

Old photos of the Interstate 35W bridge show two steel connecting plates were visibly bent as early as 2003 — four years before the span collapsed into the Mississippi River, killing 13 people. Minnesota Department of Transportation officials declined to say when the state first knew about the bending in the pieces of steel, called gusset plates. Two photos, part of a report issued earlier this month by the National Transportation Safety Board, reveal slight bends in gusset plates that hold beams together at two separate connecting points. The plates are in areas believed to be among the first points...

MIAMI, March 12, 2008 – Two military officers were recognized in front of their peers March 4 for assisting civil authorities during recovery operations following the I-35 West Minneapolis bridge collapse in August. Navy Capt. Bradley Gawboy, left, and Hennepin County Sheriff Rich Stanek participate in a panel discussion 2008 Joint National Emergency Preparedness Liaison Officer Workshop in Miami. Gawboy received the Joint Service Commendation Medal and the Minnesota Commendation Ribbon with Pendant during the workshop. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Maj. Paul Stevenson  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Army Col. Michael Chesney and Navy Capt. Bradley Gawboy...

The collapse of the St. Anthony Bridge in Minneapolis started with a design flaw in the gusset plates, confirming suspicions that arose in the first week of the investigation. A source familiar with the conclusion told CNN earlier this morning that the NTSB will announce that finding later today, ending speculation that poor maintenance caused the deaths of 13 people last August: Federal investigators have identified a design flaw as the cause of last year's Interstate 35W Minneapolis bridge collapse that killed 13 people, a congressional official said Tuesday. The official, who was briefed by the National Transportation Safety Board,...

It's been three months since the I-35W bridge collapse, and shovels are about to be put into the ground to begin construction of the replacement. And as sure as the Minnesota winter is cold, victims and their lawyers are lining up with their hands out, demanding compensation. Meanwhile, politicians are tripping over each other to see who can shovel the most of someone else's money at these people, the better to claim the mantle of “compassion” and then browbeat anyone who objects with angry cries of how one could be so “cruel” to these poor souls. It's enough to make...

The Minnesota Department of Transportation emergency response executive who failed to return to the state for 10 days after the Interstate 35W bridge collapsed was fired Friday for taking unauthorized trips, making excessive personal calls on her MnDOT cell phone and bringing embarrassment to the state.Staying away from crisis Kevin Hanretta, who was at a conference with Pitt when the bridge collapsed, told MnDOT's investigator that Pitt was torn between staying on the East Coast and returning to Minnesota. Hanretta told the investigator that Pitt decided to stay put because her staff was "doing a great job" and she was...

MINNEAPOLIS - As the estimated cost of recovering from an interstate bridge collapse surges past $400 million, survivors of the deadly disaster just wish they could get a few thousand dollars here and there to make ends meet. About 30 of the more than 100 people injured in the Aug. 1 collapse, which killed 13 people, meet weekly to talk about the troubles it's caused them. This past week, one man spoke of his struggles with a $41,000 medical bill. Others mentioned missed paychecks. That they've all had such problems getting aid irritated fellow survivor Kimberly J. Brown enough that...

John Piper pastors Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, whose main campus is about 1 mile from the I35 bridge over the Mississippi River that collapsed August 1. His reflections on that tragedy has been distributed far and wide and helped provide a biblical perspective on such events. Piper also responded forcefully and helpfully to the awful, God-dishonoring, soul-destroying and comfort-robbing words of Rabbi Harold Kushner on that tragedy. Both articles are worth reading and passing along to anyone and everyone who wonders "why bad things happen to good people." They are models in pastoral theology and ministry. Roger Olsen used...

The last victim of the Interstate 35W bridge collapse has been recovered from the water. The long, complex search for the disaster's cause is ramping up in earnest. It's about the time we'd expect the lawyers to descend. But the pinstripes are already out of the gate, setting new records for jumping the gun in a disaster. Just days after the collapse, while recovery crews were still battling treacherous waters, Schwebel, Goetz & Sieben -- one of the state's highest profile personal injury firms -- petitioned for access to the site for three attorneys and two expert witnesses. An immediate...

Pounded and strained by heavy traffic and weakened by missing bolts and cracking steel, the failed Minnesota bridge over the Mississippi River also faced a less obvious enemy: Birds. Inspectors began documenting the buildup of pigeon dung on the span near downtown Minneapolis two decades ago. Experts say the corrosive guano deposited all over the span's framework helped the steel beams rust faster. Although investigators have yet to identify the cause of the bridge's Aug. 1 collapse, which killed at least 13 people and injured about 100, the pigeon problem is one of many factors that dogged the structure. "There...

Pounded and strained by heavy traffic and weakened by missing bolts and cracking steel, the failed interstate bridge over the Mississippi River also faced a less obvious enemy: pigeons. Inspectors began documenting the buildup of pigeon dung on the span near downtown Minneapolis two decades ago. Experts say the corrosive guano deposited all over the Interstate 35W span's framework helped the steel beams rust faster...

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) - Pounded and strained by heavy traffic and weakened by missing bolts and cracking steel, the failed interstate bridge over the Mississippi River also faced a less obvious enemy: pigeons. Inspectors began documenting the buildup of pigeon dung on the span near downtown Minneapolis two decades ago. Experts say the corrosive guano deposited all over the Interstate 35W span's framework helped the steel beams rust faster. Although investigators have yet to identify the cause of the bridge's Aug. 1 collapse, which killed at least 13 people and injured about 100, the pigeon problem is one of...

Minneapolis I-35 bridge collapse: Failure Analysis The I-35 West bridge over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, Minnesota, consisted of three trussed spans and several beam and post spans typical of 1960's era freeway construction. Analysis to date here at Free Republic has centered on looking for the triggering cause in the bridge collapse, and the sequence of failure, as determined by available pre- and post-collapse imagery and video. Efforts so far have been hampered by uncertainty regarding the condition and disposition of the eastern truss panels originally located above and near pier 6. I hope to rectify this uncertainty and...

The Hennepin County Medical Examiner's office has confirmed the body of Greg Jolstad, 45, of Mora, has been recovered from the site of the 35W bridge collapse. The recovery brings the total number of confirmed deaths, and recovered victims, to 13. No more victims are believed to remain in the wreckage of the collapse.

In the wake of the Minneapolis bridge collapse, Gov. Tim Pawlenty's approval rating has climbed to its highest level recorded during his tenure in office, a new poll shows. The poll, conducted by SurveyUSA over the past weekend, found that 59 percent of Minnesotans approve of the job Pawlenty is doing at a time when the aftermath of the collapse has thrust him into the national spotlight. By comparison, 37 percent of Minnesotans disapprove of his job performance and 4 percent have no opinion. The poll has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

Human remains were found in two of four vehicles taken from the wreckage of the Interstate 35 bridge collapse since Wednesday evening, officials said Thursday.

Tuesday, August 14, 2007 Two recent tragedies -- in Minnesota and in Utah -- have held the nation's attention. The implications of these tragedies also deserve attention. Those politicians who are always itching to raise tax rates have seized upon the neglected infrastructure of the country as another reason to do what they are always trying to do. Those who live by talking points now have a great one: "How can we fight an expensive war and repair our neglected infrastructure without raising taxes?" Plausible as this might sound, tax rates are not tax revenues. The two things have moved...

I just received a copy of the last bridge inspection report on the bridge that collapsed in Minnesota last week. While there is no smoking gun, it points to MANY possible failure points. Where I am coming from is this: I am a Certified FHWA bridge inspector and have additional training in fracture critical bridges (which this bridge was). I am mainly concentrating on the center section, since that is where the failure started. The report was dated June 2006. It is 50 pages long. Interestingly, it was NOT done by a private engineering firm (like mine) while under contract...

At least seven people died, and he voted for the aid. But that didn’t stop U.S. Rep. Paul E. Kanjorski from suggesting Minnesota is trying to “screw” the rest of the country out of federal funding for its collapsed Interstate bridge, generating a firestorm among political bloggers. Comments the Nanticoke Democrat made Tuesday at a regional economic forum at the University of Scranton were posted on political Web logs, or “blogs,” touching off the controversy. “His comments are grossly inappropriate. He needs to apologize to the victims’ families for his rude comments,” a contributor wrote on one Web site. During...

Two failed bridges. Two scarily similar scenarios. Last week, the Interstate 35W span over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis collapsed under the weight of rush-hour traffic and construction crews. Federal investigators now wonder whether the design of steel plates joining beams is to blame. Eleven years earlier, the eastbound I-90 bridge over the Grand River in Lake County (Ohio) failed. The reason: the same steel plates, called gussets. They had corroded, then buckled after crews blasted them during painting preparations. But while the Minnesota catastrophe has shaken the nation and prompted warnings to states to inspect other truss bridges and...

"How long will it take," I thought, as I watched the coverage of the collapsed bridge outside of Minneapolis, "before someone blames President George W. Bush?" It turns out, not long. As divers attempted to locate possible victims submerged in the murky waters of the Mississippi, Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) said, "I think we should look at this tragedy that occurred as a wake-up call for us. We have -- all over the country -- crumbling infrastructure, highways, bridges, dams, and we really need to take a hard look at this." Calling it "the right thing to...

For some, too far is never far enough....

MINNEAPOLIS — Authorities investigating the collapse of the Interstate 35W bridge are looking for a person who was in a kayak below or near the bridge when it tumbled into the Mississippi River last week, Minneapolis Police Capt. Mike Martin said Wednesday. "We need to talk to that person," Martin said.

A week after a deadly bridge collapse, U.S. Navy divers cut through tangled debris with underwater torches and saws on Wednesday in the search for victims while investigators identified a possible flaw in the 40-year-old span's design.

A Quarter-Billion Dollars Goes to Repair a 1/3-Mile, 64-Foot-High Bridge Before adjourning for its August recess early Sunday, Congress quickly passed a bill spending $250 million to repair the 1,907-foot I-35 bridge in Minneapolis, Minnesota, an expenditure of about $130,000 per foot. This is more than three times the cost-per-foot of Alaska's infamous "Bridge to Nowhere." Under the bill, the federal government will bear the full cost of I-35 repairs. The quarter-billion-dollar spending measure raced through Congress in about two days. According to the Department of Transportation, the collapsed I-35 bridge was 1,907 feet long (just over one-third of a...

By now it's been so widely adopted by the media that it's easy to be numb to it, but Chicago Tribune's E.A. Torriero breathed new life into the Bush-caused-it meme in the I-35W bridge collapse story by adding a new twist. The bridge collapse, suggested Torriero, is insult added to injury for mostly Muslim Somali immigrants already angered by American foreign policy. In a story filed the evening of August 7, Torriero portrayed the collapse as insult added to injury for Somali immigrants, weaving in suggestions that America under President Bush is becoming akin to a third world country, unable...

The Minneapolis bridge disaster that suddenly is the symbol of the nation’s crumbling infrastructure could tip the scales in favor of billions of dollars in higher gasoline taxes for repairs coast to coast. There are 500 bridges across the country similar to the Minneapolis span, and “these are potential deathtraps,” said Rep. Don Young, RAlaska, former chairman of the House Transportation Committee. “We have to, as a Congress, grasp this problem. And, yes, I would even suggest, fund this problem with a tax,” he said. One-quarter of the nation’s bridges, including the one in Minneapolis, have been classified as structurally...

Excerpt - 360 degree aerial panorama over the collapsed I-35W bridge spanning the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, MN. This was shot the morning after the collapse when there was a TFR (temporary flight restriction) over the bridge, and I had to fly significantly higher than I normally shoot, so you won't be able to see much detail in the bridge. I may be able to do more at a decent altitude when the TFR is lifted. Click and drag to move around, up, or down. SHIFT zooms in, CTRL zooms out. (QuickTime or Java required)

An elite team of Navy divers joined the search for victims of the interstate bridge collapse Tuesday, bringing to the job lessons learned from such disasters as TWA Flight 800 and the loss of the space shuttle Columbia. The team of 16 divers and a five-member command crew arrived a day earlier. Once their gear arrived before dawn Tuesday, several divers immediately entered the Mississippi River even though local officials encouraged them to wait until daybreak. "Two in the morning, they dove into the water," Minneapolis Police Capt. Mike Martin said, calling them "the best divers in the world." "These...

New Orleans (AP) -- For New Orleans residents, the scene was all too familiar: President Bush, touring the site of the collapsed I-35W bridge in Minneapolis, promising to cut red tape and rebuild as quickly as possible. Nearly two years ago, with parts of New Orleans still under water after Hurricane Katrina, Bush made similar declarations in the French Quarter. The president's promise was all Melanie Thompson needed to hear to bring back her family of five and begin work on their flooded home. But today Thompson's family is still living in a cramped trailer and awaiting aid to rebuild....

Bridge collapse inspires threats against MnDOT employees, senator says MnDOT employees are facing threats in the wake of the I35W bridge collapse, says the chair of the Senate Transportation Committtee. Some Minnesota Department of Transportation employees have found themselves the target of "very serious threats" in the wake of the 35W bridge collapse, Sen. Steve Murphy said in a Monday news conference. As a result, he said, MnDOT is considering taking bridge inspection reports off its website until the names and contact phone numbers for individual bridge inspectors and other officials can be removed.

Dunwoody College is offering to help pay tuition for Jeremy Hernandez, the Interstate 35W bridge's school bus rescue hero. Jeremy told reporters at a news conference that his financial difficulties forced him to drop out of Dunwoody. He aspired to be an automotive mechanic. Dunwoody received many phone calls and e-mails after the news conference from alumni and staff encouraging the college to help Jeremy with school. In response, the College responded with an e-mail to alumni and faculty that stated its intention to help Jeremy re-enroll at Dunwoody An e-mail issued by the Dunwoody administration to staff and alumni...

Sens. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., and Chris Dodd, D-Conn., have a proposal for improving the country's aging infrastructure — an issue likely to get renewed attention due to Wednesday's bridge collapse in the Twin Cities. Tragedies like the bridge collapse in Minneapolis will continue to happen in the United States until the country rebuilds its infrastructure, Hagel said Thursday. "We've really got to get at it, because if we don't, we'll have more tragedies and more loss of life," he said. "It will cause officials to shut down roads, to shut down bridges . . . simply to ensure the safety...

Families are still huddled near the bridge but already Congressional Democrats are blasting the Bush Administration for failing to spend enough money on infrastructure. This is as indecent as it is stupid. One briefing today declared there are 77,000 bridges in the same classification as the 35W. The problem is obviously the inspection process, not the expenditure --an inability to focus on and find those structures close to catastrophic collapse. The bridge was in fact undergoing a $9 million maintenance program, with many workers on the span when disaster struck. Would $9 million have been enough to repair whatever flaw...